Tim Farron becomes the Lib Dems' new poster-boy

Nick Clegg has been given a lukewarm reception at his party's spring
conference, while Tim Farron was greeted with wild applause, reports Peter
Oborne.

Tim Farron is the Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and LonsdalePhoto: Getty Images

By Peter Oborne, Sheffield

9:30AM GMT 13 Mar 2011

The contrast is shattering. Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat president elect, is greeted with rapturous applause by the party faithful as he storms onto the stage, lays into David Cameron and calls for a giant lurch to the left.

But the greeting for Nick Clegg is no better than dutiful as he arrives at Friday night’s party rally.

To be fair, the party leader is given a standing ovation, testimony to a valuable new discipline in Lib Dem ranks.

But there is no warmth, and Mr Clegg’s jokes fall flat. The contrast is easy to explain. Mr Farron, who backed Saturday’s sullen Lib Dem revolt against Tory health reforms, feels like 'one of us’. Mr Clegg is 'one of them’, a remote representative of the Westminster political class.

There is no doubt that Mr Clegg and his fellow Lib Dem ministers feel a real sense of mission and fulfilment thanks to their role at the heart of the Coalition Government.

But the activists who are attending this year’s Lib Dem spring conference in record numbers are fractious, and many believe they have been betrayed on visceral issues like tuition fees and economic cuts.

For these activists there is a bitter paradox at the heart of Mr Clegg’s decision to strike a deal with Mr Cameron after last May's general election.

Certainly the Tory alliance swept Mr Clegg and other senior Lib Dems into the heart of central government. But it is becoming clear that a terribly heavy price must be paid. Mr Clegg’s alliance with Mr Cameron is about to sweep the Lib Dems out of their stronghold in local government.

Thousands of local councillors will lose their seats in what now looks certain to be by far the worst Lib Dem election results since before World War Two.

And that means Mr Clegg is about to enter his moment of maximum danger. Exactly a year ago he was leader of a confident political party on the verge of political triumph.

But on Saturday his subliminal message to the local councillors who form such a huge part of the Lib Dem activist base was – to adapt his predecessor David Steel’s notorious injunction to the 1987 Lib Dems – 'Go back to your councils and prepare for opposition.’

This message is especially galling coming from a man who will continue to enjoy all the trappings of power as a key part of Mr Cameron’s Coalition.

Mr Clegg and his advisers are well aware of the scale of this impending disaster and in a desperate attempt to manage it the party leader has authorised a dramatic change in Lib Dem strategy – one pregnant with consequence for Mr Cameron and the Coalition.

Mr Clegg is to abandon the inflexible posture of unquestioning public loyalty to the Prime Minister that has guided him ever since he joined the Government. Lib Dem Cabinet ministers will no longer express automatic public support for decisions announced by Tory Cabinet ministers.

Mr Clegg inaugurated this new era of Coalition confrontation on Friday when he confided to one newspaper that he had told the PM he was 'talking complete bilge’ about electoral reform.

Senior Lib Dems are extremely well aware that the new strategy brings costs because it will damage the trust that presently exists between Lib Dem and Conservative ministers.

As one senior Lib Dem told me yesterday, 'We have a choice of being effective in government, but losing our identity. Or keeping our identity, but achieving very little.’

With great reluctance Mr Clegg and his strategists have concluded that he has no choice but to distance himself from his Conservative Coalition partners. The alternative is even more dire - the creation of a dangerous distance between the leadership and the Liberal Democrat faithful.

Mr Clegg is realistic. He knows that this May’s election results will lead to a period of soul searching and even despair among Liberal Democrats, especially if the voters reject electoral reform on the AV referendum.

He is also aware of the devastating opinions polls which now show that the number of Lib Dem MPs in parliament would collapse to single figures and levels not seen since the 1970s if a general election were to be held tomorrow.

He remains personally convinced that the sacrifice is worth it, and in his speech yesterday convincingly spelt out the Lib Dem achievements since last May. The trouble is that not enough Lib Dem activists believe him, and they fear their party is being destroyed by its Tory alliance.

That is why this week’s Lib Dem spring conference has opened up the first splits in the Coalition – and the beginning of the end of the joyful romance between Mr Clegg and Mr Cameron.